This slide is presented by the students of AMU during their presentation. It contains Early Modern English and the changes that transformed the English in due course of time

1. Early Modern English(1500-
1800): Changes in Languages
4 June 2018
1

2. 4 June 2018
2
Early
Modern
English:
Changes in
Language
The English
Renaissance
Great Vowel
Shift
Printing Press
and
Standardization
The Bible
Dictionaries
and
Grammars
Golden Age of
Literature
William
Shakespeare
International
Trade

3. 4 June 2018
3
Selim Hossain
• The English Renaissance
• Great Vowel Shift
Akram Reza
• Printing Press and Standardization
• The Bible
Tohidur Rahman
• Dictionaries and Grammars
• Golden Age of English Literature
Varun Verma
.William Shakespeare
• International Trade

4. 4 June 2018
4
The English Renaissance
 The beginning of the Modern Age in history of English
Language.
 Classical Renaissance-Italy-words of Latin origin, from Latin
roots.
 Medieval age-mostly as a sacred(and not secular)medium
of expression.
 The English Renaissance roughly covers the 16th and the
early 17th century.

5. 4 June 2018
5
Vocabulary
 Impossible to compute the number of words, new
contributions 1500-1650-around 12000 new
words(Routledge History of English Literature).
 Rich in synonyms, alternative phrasings, allowing
switches in formality between written and spoken
Language.

6. 4 June 2018
6
New words during
Renaissance
Spanish/Portuegese:
Banana
Embargo
Tobacco
French:
Bizanne
Detail
Volunteer
Persian:
Caravan
Italian:
Balcony
Design
Stanza
Dutch:
Yatch
Turkish:
Coffee
Latin:
Appropriate
Contradictory
Utopia
Vacuum

7. 4 June
2018
7
Inkhorn Controversy
 Issues of Latin and Greek Words in English.
 One group: Latin and Greek were superior
resources-The words derived from these Languages
have to be ‘Englished’-made into English Words.
 Another group: Such Greek words corrupted the
native vernacular by displacing it with ‘Inkhorn’
terms.
 A desire to replace Latin with English as the
national Language.

8. 4 June 2018
8
Great Vowel Shift
 A radical change in the pronunciation of English
vowels.
 7 long vowels, 3 short vowels and 5 diphthongs
underwent changes.
 House-/hu:s/
 Sheep-/sep/
 About-/ebu:t/
 Me-/ma/
 Fool-/Fo:l/

9. 4 June
2018
9

10. 4 June 2018
10
Printing Press and Standardization:
Brief History
 Major factor in development of English
language, advent of Printing Press.
1450, Johann Gutenberg invented Printing
Press in Germany.
1476, William Caxton brought it into
England.
 “The Recuyell Of Historyes Of Troye”,
the first book printed in England was Of
Caxton.
Over 20,000 books were published in
following 150 years.

11. 4 June 2018
11
First Printing Press
Printing Press
invention
The process of
printing
Image Courtesy : Google

12. 4 June
2018
12
Influences of Printing Press:
 Books became cheaper and commonly available,
hence literacy mushroomed.
Chancery of Westmininster made effort to
standardize English in 1430s, but Printing Press
carried the Standardization forward.
 It popularized new coinages and newly
introduced words.
Getting into print = accepted part of language
Fixed spellings = lesser uncertainties.

13. 4 June
2018
13
Why Standardization ?
 Five major dialects divisions in England,
therefore the variations in spellings and
pronunciations were inevitable.
Map : The Dialects of English during the advent of Printing Press
Source : Internet/web
Image Courtesy : Google

14. 4 June 2018
14
The Bible:
 Major shaping influence, a long controversial
history.
 1382-Wycliff’s translation from Latin English into
Middle English.
 1526-Tyndale’s translation of the New Testament
from Greek.
 Tyndale printed his Bible in Secrecy in Germany.
 Tyndale was executed in 1536 for smuggling.
“People should be able to read the Bible in their
own Language”- Tyndale

15. 4 June
2018
15
 1611- ‘King James Bible’ Published.
 54 scholars and clerics were put together for the
compilation.
 King James Bible was an attempt to standardize
the plethora of the new Bibles.
•Page from John Wycliffe’s
bible. •Picture of Tyndale and his
Bible of !526.
•King James Bible of 1611
Image Courtesy : Google

16. 4 June
2018
16
Contribution of Bible in Early
Modern English:
Grammar:
 Older word order
They knew him not, thinks eternal, God doth know
your cup runneth over.
 Irregular verbs
Spake, wist, gat
 ‘His’ as a possessive form
“If the salt have lost his savour, werewith shall it be
salted”

17. 4 June
2018
17
Revival of Archaic Words:
Biblical usage has revived some of the
lost words into full life, such as;
‘Damsel’ for young women.
‘Raiment and apparel’ for dress.
‘Firmament’ a poetical synonym for
sky.
Proverbial expressions:
 Money is the root of all evil.
All things to all me.
The blind leading the blind.
 At their wits end.
Valley of the shadow of the death.

18. 18
Comparison Of Bibles
4 June 2018
Source : Web

19. 4 June 2018
19
Dictionaries and Grammars
Dictionaries:
A Table Alphabetical(1604)-Robert Cawdrey
An Universal Etymological English
Dictionary(1721)-Nathaniel Bailey
Dictionary of English Language(1755)-Samuel
Johnson
Oxford English Dictionary(1884)

20. 4 June 2018
20
Oxford English
Dictionary
A Table
Alphabetical
Etymological
English
Dictionary
Dictionary
of English
Language
Oxford
English
Dictionary
Image Courtesy : Google

21. 4 June 2018
21
John Cheke’s proposed for removal of all silent
letter.
William Bullokar’s 1580 recommendation of a
new 37 letter alphabet.
Attempt to ban certain words.
Jonathan Swift sought to purify and fix English
forever.
Thomas Sherdien regulated English
Pronunciation. His book “British Education”-1756
aimed at cultured British and Scottish Society.
Grammar:

22. 4 June 2018
22
A short Introduction to English
Grammar(1762)-Robert Lowth
English Grammar(1794)-Lindley Murray
Rudiments of English Grammar- Joseph
Priestly
English Grammar Books of the
18th Century

23. 4 June 2018
23
Robert Lowth
•Extremely
prescriptive
Lindley
Murray
Joseph
Priestly
•Grammar is
defined by
common usage
Image Courtesy : Google

24. 4 June 2018
24
English Newspapers:
Courante or Weekly News(first English
newspaper)(1662)
London Gazette(1665)
The Daily Courant(1702)
The Times of London(1790)
The Tatler
The Spectator

25. 4 June 2018
25
London
Gazette
1)The Oxford
Gazette
2)Official
Gazette of
British
Government
3)First
published in
7th Nov 1665
The Times Of
London
1)First
published in
1785
2)The Daily
Universal
Register
3)Lends its
name to TOI,
NYT, The
Times of
London
The Tatler
1) Founded by
Richard Steele
in 1709
2) Tatler was
introduced on
3 July 1901 by
Clement
Shorter
The Spectator
1)Founded by
Addison and
Steele
2)Weekly
Magazine
3)Politics,
Culture and
Current Affairs
4)Support
Conservative
party
Image Courtesy : Google

26. 4 June 2018
26
Early modern period(16th 18th century)
Industrial revolution(18th and early 19th century)
Computer and digital age(20th century)
Between 1500 and 1650-(10000-12000) words
added
English was earlier not used for scientific
purpose and Latin or French is used
Scientist like Isaac Newton, William Harvey all
wrote in Latin
Edward Gibbon Wrote his works in French and
then translated into English and coined several
words like thermometer, pneumonia, skeleton and
encyclopaedia.
Golden Age of English Literature:

27. 4 June 2018
27
Newton(1704)-wrote Opticks in English
and introduced words like lens, refraction,
etc
Thomas Wyatts Experimentation with
different poetic forms in the 16th century and
introduced sonnet in Europe
Edmund Spenser, William Shakespeare,
John Milton, John Dryden, Andrew Marvell,
Alexander Pope also began writing in English

28. 4 June 2018
28
Sir Thomas Elyot gave words like animate,
describe, esteem, maturity, exhaust and
modesty-16th century
Sir Thomas More gave-absurdity, active,
communicate, education, utopia, acceptance,
exact, explain, exaggerate
Milton coined 630 words like lovelorn,
fragrance and pandemonium.
Ben Jonson- damp, defunct, strenuous,
clumsy
John Donne- Self-preservation, valediction.
Sir Philip Sydney- bugbear, miniature, dumb-
stricken, far-stretched

29. 4 June 2018
29
William Shakespeare(1564-1616)
Image Courtesy : Google

30. 4 June 2018
30
Shakespeare and his
sayings/phrases
William Shakespeare (English poet and
playwright: 1564-1616)
All that glitters is not gold---the merchant of
Venice
All’s well that ends well-------All’s well that
ends well
Jealousy is green-eyed monster---Othello
A dog will have its day—Hamlet
A sorry sight----Macbeth

31. 4 June 2018
31
SHAKESPEARE’S CONTRIBUTION IN ENGLISH LANGUAGE
 Coined 2035 words
 (Hamlet alone has 600 new words)
 1700 words -first used
 His works have 80 different translations
 Wrote 38 plays, poems especially 154 sonnets
an 2 long narrative poems
 Plays are comedies tragedies and histories
 Plays based on works of classical and
contemporary playwrights.
 Recycled older stories and historical material.
 E.g. the winter’s tale play derived from Robert
Greene’s “Pandosto”

32. 4 June 2018
32
Shakespeare’s Art of
prose/poetry/dramatic writing
 Use of blank verse
 Use of Free speech rhythm
 Complex emotions in simple expressions
 Depth of content and variety of emotion
 Constant change in speech and Swift turn
of thoughts

33. 4 June 2018
33
International Trade:
British Naval Superiority
Trade words borrowed from- Spain, Portugal
and Netherlands
Fusion Of Language
Helped in mixing English as Global Language

34. 4 June 2018
34